Concert notes: George Jones at the Majestic

Country legend George Jones, shown performing in Nashville in 2006, will play the Majestic Theatre in November.

The Majestic Theatre is no one’s idea of a country dancehall, mainly because it’s just a bit deficient in the sawdust and dancefloor department.

Despite that handicap, the old theater is becoming a popular stop for country legends (i.e., the great ones who don’t get played on country radio any more). Willie Nelson played there in March. Loretta (No I’m Not Homeless) Lynn dropped by in June.

And now, along comes Jones. George Jones. One of the architects of country music, who scored his first hit in 1955, will play the Majestic Nov. 19. Tickets, $40-$60, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster outlets. It’s his first San Antonio show since he played the Stock Show & Rodeo in 2006.

Born in Saratoga on the edge of the Big Thicket and raised in Beaumont, Jones, who turns 79 on Sept. 12, has had 14 No. 1 country hits, four wives (including duet partner Tammy Wynette) and numerous alcohol-related incidents, earning him the nickname “No-Show Jones” in the late ’70s because he missed so many gigs. Everything came to a head in a 1999 car crash in Nashville that left him seriously injured and caused him to swear off booze for good.

A concert setting like the Majestic seems a fitting way to enjoy his hit duets with Wynette or “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” voted the No. 1 country song of all time in a magazine readers’ poll.

Writing for “MusicHound Country,” critic Doug Pullen summed up Jones’ appeal: “Nobody can cry in their beer more pitifully, bemoan the loss of their woman more painfully or put himself down more severely than Jones can.”